Tony Jojola
Artist’s Statement
“After thirty years of being involved with the molten medium, and coming from a potter’s background and being Pueblo Indian, I look at glass as clay that can’t be touched. Like clay, anything can be made from glass. Some of my biggest influences stem from watching my grandfather, a silversmith who loved to work with gold filigree. He was also a wood carver and beekeeper. He was a man of many talents. The Pilchuck Glass School also heavily influenced me, where I worked many summers and falls, and was involved with many internationally known artists. Over the years, I’ve developed several techniques for creating designs on glass: sandblasting, electroforming, graal, casting. Sandblasting is a way to get images to form. Electroforming is a technique that adheres metal to glass. The Graal technique is an overlay process developed in Sweden, through which a design appears inside the glass. Casting is a way to incorporate motifs that are symbolic to my culture. I also like to draw on the piece using very thin colored glass threads and a hot torch. All of the work is about color. I’ve always been very interested in color, so many of my pieces are color studies.
Working with the molten medium demands team effort, and that is how I work. I have found that the team method is the best way to get from idea to paper to reality. I work with no less than three highly skilled craftsmen because there is so much involved in the process to getting things done at the precise time.
My culture provides me with such endless inspiration, that I know I will never be able to create all of what is in my mind. Every piece is different. There may be a few that are similar in form but different in color and design and technique. In most cases, they are different in a variety of ways so that each piece is a unique work of art.”
Biography
Tony Jojola is one of a handful of Native American glass blowers. Jojola was born in Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico. He began working as a potter at an early age. He has become one of today’s premier hot-blown glass artists in the nation, and his reputation extends internationally.
As a boy, Jojola practiced pottery, but was also drawn to the work that his grandfather did as a silversmith and woodcarver: “Crafts were a part of my family heritage, and I tried making pottery and jewelry. Nothing really grabbed me until I discovered glass.” Tony honors his grandfather by using some of his father’s silver jewelry stamps on several of his glass vessels.
Tony attended the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he immediately fell in love with the fluidity and permanence of molten glass. He received a scholarship to the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, where he eventually became artist-in-residence. He then went on to study at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Washington, where he apprenticed with Dale Chihuly, master of American glass art, and was later to become a member of Chihuly’s famed team of glass artists.
Tony enjoys working with young artists, so in 1999, he established the Taos Glass Workshop in Northern New Mexico. There, he has been able to give back to his community by training at-risk youth in a viable and fulfilling skill. Since 2001, Tony’s glass bears have been presented to recipients of the Unsung Heroes and Citizens of the Year awards, held annually in Taos. In 2005, Jojola and ceramic artist Rosemary Lonewolf completed a 30-foot permanent installation for the Heard Museum titled “Indigenous Evolution,” an art fence which Jojola states is about “going through boundaries, symbolizing how strong our culture is, how persistent our existence.”
Jojola’s art is distinguished by the incorporation of his Native American heritage. Vessels follow traditional forms, including ollas, seed jars, and baskets. He uses motifs that are important to Pueblo culture: thunderbirds, dragonflies, and water serpents. Each piece is hand-blown with skill to emphasize the glass vessel’s brilliant color and luminosity.
Fellowships and exhibits have honored Tony Jojola’s work across the United States and Europe. His work has been exhibited in the Wheelwright Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Heard Museum, and the Burke Museum, to name a few. His work has also been acquired for many private and public collections.
